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A Very Merry Christmas & The Top 50 of 2013, Part 2 – S09E16

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WW Vinyl December 23

It was an epic day as I was on the airwaves from 7-10am and then the regular show at 11am on CKCU-FM. First, it was the Monday Special Blend and I was joined by Canadian Spaces host, Chris White as we had Shannon Rose & The Thorns. Rose has a new song which is fitting for Christmas and it’s called North Star. She performed three songs live on the airwaves. First was North Star, the second was Phoenix and lastly, a Bing Crosby cover song, I’ll Be Home For Christmas. Luckily, Ottawa didn’t bear brunt of the ice storm which hit Toronto on the weekend. Overall, it was a great morning to have guests like Chris White and Shannon Rose. From the image above, it was shot on a Polaroid.
The next show to help out was The Filibuster and we basically played Christmas songs ranging from the popular one to Metal to Canadian indie music. It was a nice mix of tunes to play as I was joined host, Ben James for the Filibuster.
To my own show, I played the favourites from Jill Barber, Basia Bulat and Nat Jay. It’s become a yearly tradition to play those wonderful festive songs. There were a few new tracks from Mounties, The Mountain and the Trees and a new Said The Whale.
You can check the playlist over at the this link. You can listen to the audio below. It will be a lengthy listen. Happy Holidays!
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The Christmas Edition and The Top 50 of 2013, Part 1 – S09E15

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WW Vinyl December 16

It’s that time of festive season where I’ll be playing Christmas music. This year is a bit different in terms of music format as I decided to play J-POP Christmas songs on CKCU-FM. After a debacle from last year’s radio show where I played Christmas UK #1 songs, it’s a better way to play it safe by choosing Christmas tunes from the Far East.
Played were Cream, B’z, L’Arc~en~Ciel, BoA and KinKi Kids. For Cantopop, there was Lonely Christmas by Eason Chan as it’s become part of the yearly Christmas playlist.

As usual, I was joined by Lauren as we decided to play through the festive tunes and it’s her last live show for 2013. She will still be on the air for the year end countdown show.
We were joined by Erica who made a surprise appearance. We also had fun taking some instant film photos using The Impossible Project film to the Polaroid camera. It was two hours full of fun music and wearing Santa hats.
The playlist can be checked over at this link. You can also listen to the audio below.
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The Interview with Kat Burns of Kashka – S09E14

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WildWorks Vinyl December 9

Three consecutive days to writing a blog entry is astounding. It’s a nice way of making it up from a month’s absence in October. All I have to say that it was a great weekend as I attended Ottawa Pop Expo.
This week’s radio show on CKCU-FM had the interview with Kashka. It is fronted by former Forest City Lovers, Kat Burns. It’s been awhile since I last saw her.
As mentioned elsewhere, it’s the last music interview of 2013 as I will be getting into the festive tunes and the year end countdowns. Back to Kashka, Burns was in Ottawa on Friday night for her tour and in support of the second album, Bound. It was released in late November. For those who don’t know, Kashka’s music takes the term of ‘folkpoptronica.’ A blending folk, pop and electronic music into one. You can listen to the interview below.
I started the show with a tribute to Nelson Mandela. I played the song Glorious Days by Hong Kong rock band, Beyond. It’s a homage to Mandela back in 1990. It was inspired by his fight for inequality and the song is now used for demonstrations fighting against anti-racism and for freedom. The music video is posted below with English subtitles. Even though, it’s in Cantonese, there’s images of the late great Mandela. Long live Madiba!

You can check the playlist over at this link.
Lastly, if you’re listening from the blog, I played the full versions of Make Me A Mirror by Ark Analog and the brand new song by St. Vincent, Birth In Reverse.
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The Lonely End of the Rink with Grant Lawrence – S09E11

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With Grant Lawrence Polaroid Vinyl

Grant Lawrence was in Ottawa on Friday, November 29, 2013. He was there to promote his new book, The Lonely End of the Rink – Confessions of a Reluctant Goalie. The event was held at Pressed, which is a great place for sandwiches and other food.
I had the chance to interview with Lawrence and talked about the details on his second book, which is on the hockey side. You can listen to the interview below.
It was great to see the venerable radio host on CBC Radio 3 come to the Nation’s Capital and say positive things about Ottawa. His second book has connections to Ottawa, be sure to look for it at bookstores.

December 2nd Radio Show
Aside from the interview, there were new music from the like of The Balconies and MORI. MORI released a music video to this song, I Know It’s Over. If you watch the music video, a certain appearance from Cadence Weapon and Miracle Fortress are in it. Keep an eye on it.
The Balconies will be releasing their new album, Fast Motions in the new year, keep a look out on it.

As usual, Lauren joined me for the second half of the show and talked about HAIM as we approach the end of the year and have our yearly best of 2013 countdown coming up.

Performing this week in Ottawa is Kashka at Raw Sugar Cafe for December 6, 2013.
To check out the playlist from the radio show, click here. You can listen to the audio below.
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Finally! The Interview with Motel Raphael – S09E10

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WW Vinyl November 25

I have been holding it off for awhile but I finally aired the interview with the Montreal band, Motel Raphael on CKCU-FM. It was originally recorded in the Summer and my radio show doesn’t do new music interview segments around the Summer months. The reason for holding it off was to wait for their album but it’s been pushed back as I last checked. As 2013 is ending, it’s best to air it sooner and have it without music in the background. The nice part was that I didn’t have any music interviews to conduct and it was just convenient timing to air the Motel Raphael interview. There were recently on a reality show and it had to do with a kitchen makeover.
Overall, it was great to meet the lovely band as they had an awesome 2013 since they made it to the Top 16 of CBC Music’s Searchlight Contest, placed fourth for Best Musical Act according to Cult Montreal,  their crowd funding for their album and finally getting to see them live in Montreal (missed out their performance in Ottawa). You can listen to the interview below.
The playlist for the radio show is over at this link.
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Celebrating Doctor Who’s 50th Anniversary – S09E09

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WW November 18 Vinyl

On this week’s radio show on CKCU-FM, I decided to pay tribute to Doctor Who as it celebrates its 50th anniversary. It couldn’t happen at a right time as I brought along the sonic screwdriver toys to the station and poke fun with a few hosts. It will be exciting when The Day of The Doctor airs on Saturday afternoon (Ottawa time) on Saturday, November 23rd. The day when Doctor Who first aired in 1963. I’ll be happy to see the Tenth Doctor return to the small screen. David Tennant was named the “nation’s” best Doctor and Matt Smith has been a great Doctor as well.
Aside from that and the sounds of the sonic screwdriver, I re-aired the interview with The Doctor Who Society of Canada as I had technical difficulties airing it back in June following Ottawa Comic Con. It was fitting to play the interview on the airwaves in Ottawa and go back in time. You can listen to the interview again from below.
Also on the show, I had Lauren joining me for the second half of the show and talked about the weekend as we went to a launch party but we didn’t bump into each other.
Played this week were three songs which came out as a music video. They were Forgive Me by Austra, Jasper by Louise Burns and Permanent Hesitation by Born Ruffians.
Then there’s the usual tracks from Basia Bulat, The Darcys and Rebekah Higgs.
You can check the playlist over at this link.
Have a great week!
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The Hannah Georgas Interview – S09E08

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WW Nov 11 Vinyl Blog

It’s November 11th and it’s the day where everyone observes and pay their respects to the soldiers and veterans who fought in wars. Wars are still continuing throughout parts of the continent and we still reflect the sacrifices that soldiers face in combat and defending peace. Remembrance Day this year marked the 95th anniversary of the end of WWI. Lest We Forget.

Radio Show
On the this week’s radio show, Lauren returned to the program after a month’s absence. It was a good timing as I aired the interview with Hannah Georgas. Georgas was in Ottawa last week for two shows at the NAC for NAC Presents. It’s the first time to finally interview her as she’s been busy touring and it was a nice opportunity to do so. It’s been awhile I have seen her live and in the interview, I got to ask about the emotional process that she brought in her 2012 self titled album. Played on the show was her cover rendition of Rihanna’s Stay. Myself and Lauren have found her version to be raw and powerful. It almost put me in tears when I listen to the song. Her song is available on iTunes. Played on the show this week are new tracks from Rebekah Higgs, Kashka and the usual artists and bands like Basia Bulat and Arcade Fire.
I got a message on my Facebook page and played Jess Hart.
You can listen to the interview and the radio show below.
The playlist for the radio show can be seen at this link.
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New Web Address and Apology on the Delay – S09E05

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Vinyl Blog October 28

Sorry for the lack of posts for the month of October as I experienced a nasty cold, then there was Thanksgiving, and a co-host bailing out on the radio show several times. For the past few weeks, I didn’t have much to post up due to a lack of music interviews.
The exciting news is that wildworks.wordpress.com is no more as it’s wildworks.ca. It’s the new address for this site and quite lucky to get the domain name. It was tough whether to go for a dot com or dot ca name. It was best to stay Canadian for a domain name. The WordPress name gets redirected to the new web address.
What a good way to return with a post along with the new address. I will decide if the blog needs to get a new look, if needed.

The Radio Show
On the October 28th edition of the radio show on CKCU-FM, I started off with the tribute to Lou Reed as social media exploded throughout Sunday on his passing. In kicking off the show, I decided to play Walk On The Wildside as I remembered hearing that song from a Levi’s commercial back in the 1980s. It was also a nice shoutout to David Yazbeck of the Thursday Special Blend because his posts on Facebook caught my attention. He’s a big fan of Reed’s music. Reed was the driving force of the indie rock genre back in the 1960s as he formed the venerable band, The Velvet Underground.
Also on the show was playing songs for Halloween, which is on Thursday. A nice warm up for anyone going trick or treating with friends or go to Halloween themed parties.
Lastly, there was the tribute to the late Hong Kong singer/actress, Anita Mui. 2013 is the tenth anniversary of her death.
You listen to the audio from below. There was a new Arcade Fire, new Kandle and an unexpected announcement of Two Hours Traffic breaking up on the show.
To check out the playlist for the October 28th show, it is over at this link.
Also back this week is the Wild 10 Countdown. You can check it out at this link.

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The Pop Montreal 2013 Wrapup and Basia Bulat Interview – S09E04

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WW Vinyl Sept 30

It was a wonderful weekend with to end September as I was in Montreal for Pop Montreal and my expectations exceed for this year because I checked out several bands and went to several venues. It was all in thanks to using Airbnb as the gracious host was accommodating and I was able to use the Bixi bike to get around to places.

The first live music to check out was at Divan Orange and it was Michael Feuerstack. It was unexpected because the place I was staying at was close by. Afterwards was getting to Pop Quarters  to get media pass and later going for two discussion panels. The first was a panel called “Some of the Smartest People We Know Discuss: Musicians, What Are your Intellectual Property Rights Now, and What Do We Want That to Really Mean?” That’s such a long title. It was formative discussion as the panellist consisting of Patrick Watson, Justin West (Secret City President), Susan Abramovitch (entertainment lawyer) and moderator, Reuven Ashtar (new media lawyer). It was quite informative as musicians like Watson need to get money to feed his family and how companies are using music for use as a property.

The second panel I went was definitely the one I wanted to check as it was The Polaris Music Prize Salon. Finally got to meet Polaris founder, Steve Jordan. The funny thing was that he thought I would be at the Ottawa salon as I was away to Toronto. The Montreal salon was one of the surprises to appear and it was a way to make up to missing out the Ottawa salon. Jordan was joined by Montreal jury members, Pierre Landy (CBC), Christine Fortier (CISM) and Erik Leijon (freelance/Montreal Gazette)

It was days after Godspeed You! Black Emperor! won best album for the 2013 edition. All were in support of GYBE winning and still being a good album. The band’s statement on their win and criticizing Polaris still left a lot of debate and discussion.
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From Nuit Blanche to Polaris Music Prize – S09E03

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WildWorks Sept 23 Vinyl

It’s been an eventful last week in Ottawa. I was away in Toronto when the tragic news of the OC Transpo being hit by a VIA Rail train. It’s sad to hear the lives lost. Condolence goes out the lost ones affected by it.
Aside from that, what a weekend when I checked out Nuit Blanche Ottawa-Gatineau. It’s the second year that the artistic and wonderful event has been held. It started at 6:20pm to 4:20am. It’s a basically a long night to experience the unique fun.
I missed out on the first edition as I was in Montreal for Pop Montreal. Even though it was raining throughout Saturday, it didn’t help deter people checking out unique arts and crafts located at various places in Ottawa. I was able to check out the downtown and Gatineau for Nuit Blanche.
One unique thing I got was a firefly. As the website explained that it’s hackable (open software) and when interacting with other fireflies, it create a unique light pattern. You’ll see a photo below as I tweeted to someone that I got the lumipendant.
Overall, it was a fun event and hope the 2014 edition doesn’t have rain in the forecast. I posted some photos below. Check it out.

Monday’s Radio Show
On this week’s radio show, it’s the Polaris Music Prize edition as it’s day of the gala. Ten nominees are vying for the $30,000 prize to claim the best album of the year. As mentioned everytime, the Polaris Music Prize is based on artistic merit and judged by over 200 jury members from radio, tv, print and Internet.
I had the opportunity to chat with Ryan of CKCU’s Whatever’s Cool With Me as he’s jury member and in Toronto for the gala. He also explained on the show that this year’s shortlist is the strongest for artistic merit and had a difficult time choosing the albums. It was a fun chat as I don’t usually interact with a lot of CKCU hosts.
Who will win the prize? We’ll find out in due time

You can check the playlist over at this link. You can listen to the audio below.
Have a great week and I will be going to Montreal this weekend.
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